Railway-fusee placer



J. R. WRIGHT. RAILWAY FUS'BE PLACER.

(No Model.)

Patented Set. 17,1895.

WWII

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB RIDGWAY WRIGHT, or WILKES-BARRF, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAlLWAY-FUSEE PLACER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 54-,605, dated September 17, 1 895.

Application filed July 25, 1894;. Serial No. 518,565. (No model.)

T on whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAooB RIDGWAY WRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, residingat Wilkes-Barre, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Fusee Placers, of which the following is a specification.

. My invention relates to improvements in railroad-fusee placers for placing fusees upon the rails of a railway-track.

It has heretofore been customary to simply throw fusees from the rear of a moving train onto the track without any certainty that the fusee would not be extinguished in striking the ground or that it would even remain upon the track. In some instances a number of fusees have had to be thrown in order to produce a single satisfactory signal.

According to my present invention the f usee is clamped upon the rail and it cannot fail to be effective when the fusee-placer is properly handled. 1

For a complete description of the invention reference is had to the following specification and the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a rear View of a fusee held in a f usee-placer ready to be clamped upon a rail. Fig. 2 is a central sectional view on the line 2 of Fig. 1, the fusee being shown in side elevation. Fig. 3 is a side view of the fusee-placer. Fig. 4 is a bottom plan View, and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the fusee, showing it in position upon the head of a rail.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates the fusee and 2 a band of spring metal, which is attached to the fusee and which fits over and clamps the fusee to the rail 3, as shown in Fig. 5. The clamp 2 is preferably formed with arms 4, which extend downward and are sharply bent or doubled at 5, the extremities 6 being preferably sharpened, so as to take hold of the rail. The fusee may in some cases be attached to the spring-clamp 2, but to adapt it to be held in an automatic placer I use an intermediate disk or base-piece 7, the

fusee being attached to the upper side of the base and the spring-clamp to the-lower side. The fusee-placer consists of a head 8, which is cylindrical and hollow and cut away at the rear side at 9 in order that the fusee may pass out readily after it is placed upon the rail.

In the upper part of the head is a socket 10 to receive a handle 11, which should be long enough to reach from the platform of the car to the rail. Upon opposite sides of the head at its lower end are downwardly-projecting lugs 12 12, having inwardly-beveled faces 13, against which the spring-arms of the fusee are clamped and held in a manner to be hereinafter described. These, clamping-lugs 12 are provided at their forward ends with small downwardly-proj ecting points or shoulders 14: 15, against which the edge of the fusee springclamp rests. At the forward side of the head is a solid downwardly-projecting bumper 16, which is adapted to sustain the shock of the contact between the fusee-placer and the rail.

A forked lever 17 has its upper end pivoted to the head at 18. The branches 19 of the fork extend downward nearly parallel with the head and at their lower ends are turned sharply backward, forming prongs 20, adapted to pass between the shoulders 14 and and to clamp the spring-arms of the fusee firmly against the inclined faces 13 of the lugs 12, as shown in Fig. 1.

In order to withdraw the prongs 20 from the lugs 12 to release the fusee after it is placed upon the rail, there is a releasing-lever 21. This lever, as shown, is integral with the clamping-lever 17. Its free end is curved downward, then forward, and then upward, so as to prevent it from catching in splinters on the rails or in the joints between the rails.

In operation a fusee is placed in the head, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, its spring clampingarms being held in contact with the faces of the lugs 12 by the prongs 20 of the clampinglever. In order to accomplish this the springarms must be spread slightly apart and pushed up against the shoulders 12, while the prongs are forced under the spring. The tension of the spring-clamp will then hold the parts in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 until some force is brought to bear on the releasing-lever.

The fusee may be placed upon the rail from the rear platform of a train when going at any rate of speed up to forty or fifty miles per hour. To do this the device is held over the rail with the releasinglever upon its forward side-that is, the side in the direction in which the train is going. The placer is then given a quick downward movement, the result of which is that the spring-arms of the clamp are carried over the head of the rail and simultaneously therewith the releasinglever is struck by the rail and the prongs immediately withdrawn from the lugs and the fusee released. The fusee being firmly attached to the rail and freed from the placer passes out from the rear opening 9 in the head. The fusee should be lighted after it is in position in the placer and just immediately before it is connected to the rail. If it is desired to use fusees of different form or larger ones, the head of the placer and the rear opening in it may be modified to suit.

I am aware of the patent to Pieter and Johnson, No. 48%,864, which shows and describes a device for placing torpedoes, but the Piefer and Johnson device is not adapted for holding a fusee. The head of my fusee-placer is cut away on the rear side only, the forward side acting as a shield to prevent the draft caused by a rapidly moving train from blowing out the light, while the rear opening permits the fusee to pass out of the placer when it becomes attached to the track.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a fusee placer, the combination with the hollow head, open on its rear side at 9 to permitof the discharge of the fusee, of a clamping lever for holding the fusce in the head and a releasing lever for releasing the same, said levers being pivoted to the head, sub stantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JACOB RIDGWAY WRIGHT.

\Vitnesses:

ANDREW I'I'. MCCLINTOOK, LOUIS O. IIAY. 

